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            <h1>Debug Adapter Protocol</h1>
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            The Debug Adapter Protocol (DAP) defines the abstract protocol used between a development tool (e.g. IDE or editor) and a debugger.
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            <h2 class="header-light regular-pad">What is the Debug Adapter Protocol?</h2>

            <p>Adding a debugger for a new language to an IDE or editor is not only a significant effort,
            but it is also frustrating that this effort can not be easily amortized over multiple development tools,
            as each tool uses different APIs for implementing the same feature.</p>

            <p>The idea behind the <i>Debug Adapter Protocol</i> (DAP) is to abstract the way how the debugging support of development tools
            communicates with debuggers or runtimes into a protocol. Since it is unrealistic to assume that existing debuggers or runtimes adopt this protocol any time soon,
            we rather assume that an intermediary component - a so called <i>Debug Adapter</i> - adapts an existing debugger or runtime to the Debug Adapter Protocol.</p>

            <p>The Debug Adapter Protocol makes it possible to implement a generic debugger for a development tool that can communicate with different debuggers via Debug Adapters.
            And Debug Adapters can be re-used across multiple development tools which significantly reduces the effort to support a new debugger in different tools.</p>

            <p>The <i>Debug Adapter Protocol</i> is a win for both debugger providers and tooling vendors!</p>
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                                <img alt="Inline values with the Python Debug Adapter" src="img/python-inline-values.gif" class="img-fluid rounded"/>
                                <p class="text-left"><i>VS Code showing inline values powered by the Python Debug Adapter</i></p>
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                                <img alt="Multi-threaded debugging with the Java Debug Adapter" src="img/java-threads.png" class="img-fluid rounded"/>
                                <p class="text-left"><i>VS Code's multi-thread debugging powered by the Java Debug Adapter</i></p>
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                                <img alt="REPL console with the Node.js Debug Adapter" src="img/node-repl.gif" class="img-fluid rounded"/>
                                <p class="text-left"><i>REPL console in VS Code powered by the Node.js Debug Adapter</i></p>
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                The protocol defines the format of the messages sent using JSON between the development tool and the debug adapter.
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                The latest version of the protocol specification is version 1.70.0.
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                <a href='{{ "/changelog" | prepend: site.baseurl }}'>Change History</a>
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                The DAP has been implemented for many debuggers or runtimes and some development tools are hosting these debug adapters.
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